Oh NO He Didn't!

The Good Enough, The Bad and The Ugly Behavior - 2

Today’s scene comes from Sarah Steel, Owner of Steel Management Group, a commercial construction management, facility management and permit expediting services to small businesses and organizations in the DC Metro area. Her story comes from earlier in her career. She was one of 3 senior-level team members with the same level of authority, responsibilities and workload. The good news is that she was performing on the goals. Then she found out her 2 counterparts were making more money. Significantly more money. However, this is not REALLY what the story is about today. That part happens (happened?…dare I say changing winds are blowing??) in many industries and companies. Our story picks up after Sarah communicates with her boss that she wants a raise equal to her co-workers. Then this happened….

What?

As Sarah sits at the desk in her office, her boss comes in and glances under desk. Sarah looks at him confused and then he asks “Do you have balls under that skirt?” He says she must have “real balls” to ask for a raise of that amount.

Sarah admits, at the time, she was unsure whether that was a compliment or if she was offended. Over time she has found it more offensive.

Mr. X went on to explain the disparity as justified because the other team members had families and she, at the time, was single. The whole thing made her “blood boil and hair curl”.

Sarah stuck to her guns and DID receive her raise. But she wants us to know that it was a pivotal moment in deciding to leave and move from being an employee to a business owner.

Boss Action!

Today’s lesson is clear and easy to adopt!

1. Value a job on results – that is it!

If you have clear roles and more than one employee, you should also be clear of the value to your company for the efforts to achieve those results. You can have junior and senior levels of a similar role that may be compensated differently, however, be clear with all staff on what the skill set / experiences required to move from one to the other.

And oh ya…keep it, AND talking about it, in your pants while you are at work people!

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